Jacynthe Dessureault-Rompré

Université Laval | ULAVAL · Department of Soil and Agri-Food Engineering

With a focus on soil systems (status, properties, functionality, diagnosis, roles, assessment, conservation, knowledge, practices, productivity, management, policies, climate, biodiversity, etc.), this book addresses gaps pertinent to promoting sustainable human-environment in the Global South and beyond. The soil system is a complex and dynamic pa...

Amending agricultural peatlands with straw and wood chips has recently shown promising potential in preserving soil carbon stock and restoring and maintaining porosity and drainage. However, reductions in crop yield and nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) availability were also observed with the application of such materials. The objective of this stud...

This paper discusses the primary processes involved in the degradation of cultivated organic soils (Histosols) in Canada: decomposition, subsidence, formation of a compacted horizon limiting drainage and last, but not least, wind erosion. The content is organized as follows: (i) description and quantification of the different mechanisms, (ii) overv...

Repeated applications of straw and wood chips were recently proposed as a conservation strategy for preserving cultivated peatland carbon (C) stock. However, the variability in the amendment biostability and the possible divergent responses of contrasting peat soils need to be assessed. This study investigated the effect of amendment with different...

Drained agricultural peatlands are subject to degradation through decomposition, compaction, and erosion. This study aimed to (1) revisit an existing recommendation to systematically apply copper at a rate exceeding crop needs to slow the decomposition of agricultural peatlands, and (2) explore lignosulfonate, a polyphenol, as an alternative method...

Background Cultivated peatlands are widespread in temperate and boreal climate zones. For example, in Europe about 15% of the pristine peatland area have been lost through drainage for agricultural use. When drained, these organic soils are a significant source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To reach climate goals, the agricultural sector must...

Agricultural areas exhibiting numerous abiotic stressors, such as elevated water stress, temperatures, and salinity, have grown as a result of climate change. As such, abiotic stresses are some of the most pressing issues in contemporary agricultural production. Understanding plant responses to abiotic stressors is important for global food securit...

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) crops are often cultivated in coarse-textured soils with low soil organic matter and high nitrate leaching risk. Incorporating shrub willow chips into soil could enhance soil properties, while temporally immobilizing N and thus reducing N leaching. We performed a laboratory incubation study and a field experiment to ev...

Cultivated Organic soils in Montreal's southwest plain are the most productive soils in the province of Quebec. After their initial drainage to enable farming, Organic soils are susceptible to many forms of degradation and soil loss. In this study, we characterized the physical, chemical, and pedological properties of 114 sites from five peatlands...

Nitrogen (N), a common chemical element in the atmosphere (78% of our atmosphere) yet less common within the Earth’s crust (less than 2%), is a crucial nutrient for life [...]

Abstract : Peatlands are known to perform essential economical, societal and regulating functions. Once they are drained to provide optimal crop growth conditions, a series of degradation processes is generated. To counteract degradation of these soils, the use of amendment, based on plant material (straw, wood chips, biochar) was proposed. In th...

Drained cultivated peatlands have been an essential agricultural resource for many years. To slow and reduce the degradation of these soils, which increases with drainage, the use of plant-based amendments (straw, wood chips, and biochar) has been proposed. Literature on the effects of such amendments in cultivated peatlands is scarce, and question...

Phytotechnology has traditionally been considered as a tool to remediate contaminated soils. While phytotechnology has been generally defined as the application of science and engineering to study problems and provide solutions involving plants, the practical applications go far beyond restoring contaminated land. This review aims to broaden the wa...

Extracellular soil enzymes play a key role in soil organic matter decomposition and nutrient cycling. However, it is not fully understood how these enzymes respond to different land use. Long-term research studies were used to evaluate how diversified management practices affect extracellular enzymes driving C cycling [phenol oxidases (PO), peroxid...

Few conservation strategies have been applied to cultivated peatland. This field study over one growth cycle of Lactuca sativa examined the effect of plant-based, high-C/N-ratio amendments in a real farming situation on peatland. Plant Root Simulator (PRS®) probes were used directly in the field to assess the impacts of incorporating Miscanthus x g...

Subsidence, erosion, and degradation in agricultural peatlands are leading to the disappearance of highly fertile farmland. This study investigated two strategies aimed at extending the lifespan of cultivated peat soils: the application of straw and wood chips to compensate for soil losses and the application of copper (Cu) to slow peat decompositi...

Reclaiming histosols in Montéregie region, Québec, Canada, increases peat decomposition and compaction rate and decreases the effectiveness of subsurface drainage. The objective of this paper was to use HYDRUS-2D to model the behavior of subsurface drainage systems, in order to evaluate the compaction effect on drain depth and spacing, and to deter...

The objective of this study was to design, using field data, a filter to correct the soil penetration resistance (PR) values by considering all the effects (penetration friction component [PFC], varying penetration rate, and shocks) that bias PR interpretation. The data used were collected in cultivated peatlands of Montérégie (Canada) known for th...

Vegetable crop production, which is expanding worldwide, is managed extremely intensively and is therefore raising concerns about soil degradation. The objective of this study was to analyze the impact of using rye mulch as a conservation practice on nutrient availability for lettuce grown in histosols. The rye cover crop was established in the fal...

In Canada, most lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) is produced on cultivated organic soils, which can be very productive but are also very sensitive to degradation and compaction. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of soil compaction, irrigation thresholds and transplant type on the growth and water-use characteristics of Romaine lettuc...

Peatlands are known to perform essential economical, societal and regulating functions. Once they are drained to provide optimal crop growth conditions, however, a series of degradation processes is generated. Wind and water erosion, subsidence and soil organic matter oxidation are the main causes of degradation observed in cultivated histosols. Th...

Core Ideas Short rotations showed small hydraulic conductivity improvement the year of rotation. Effects vanished the year after termination of the rotational crops. Pore continuity appears to be disrupted by tillage operations. The formation of a compacted layer in cultivated organic soils reduces water infiltration and can lead to the formation...

L'importance des nitrates et de l’ammonium dans la nutrition des cultures, de même que les impacts environnementaux des nitrates dans les eaux souterraines ont principalement attiré l'attention des scientifiques sur l’étude des formes minérales de l’azote. Cependant, un réservoir d’azote organique soluble (AOS) de taille non négligeable existe dans...

We examined soluble organic nitrogen (SON) leached from long-term, sequentially leached, aerobic incubations. Leached SON, present in all depths (0-60 cm), ranged from 35% to 56% of total nitrogen (N). This unaccounted-for SON may have important implications in the estimation of plant available N and the potential for environmental N losses.

Core Ideas Cultivated organic soils (Histosols) are highly productive but very sensitive to degradation and compaction. Penetration resistance and saturated hydraulic conductivity are two important parameters related to the degree of decomposition of Histosols. Penetration resistance could be used to assess the depth of the compact layer, as well a...

L’objectif de cette étude était de caractériser et de comparer les profils de résistance à l’enfoncement et les mesures de conductivités hydrauliques saturées aux champs, selon différents degrés de décomposition observés chez les sols organiques cultivés de la Montérégie.

L’objectif de ce travail était d’évaluer l’effet du compactage du sol, des seuils d’irrigation et du type de transplantation sur les caractéristiques de croissance et d’utilisation de l’eau de la laitue romaine cultivée en sol organique.

A better understanding of the depth distribution of soil mineralizable nitrogen (N) pools is important to improve prediction of net soil N mineralization. However, our understanding of the depth distribution of these N pools under the semi-arid conditions of western Canada is limited. This study examined the depth distribution of soil mineralizable...

Formation and evolution of organic soils for the Montérégie (Quebec, Canada) peatland

Prediction functions based on simple kinetic models can be used to estimate soil N mineralization as an aid to improved fertilizer N management, but require long-term incubations to obtain the necessary parameters. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the feasibility of predicting the mineralizable Nparameters necessary to implemen...

Seasonal changes in both environmental conditions and substrate quality and quantity determine the soil N supply to plants. The objective of this study was to evaluate seasonal changes in the quantity and quality of soil mineral N (SMN) and mineralizable N pools under a growing potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) crop that was preceded by three crop spec...

Georgallas, A., Dessureault-Rompre, J., Zebarth, B. J., Burton, D. L., Drury, C. F. and Grant, C. A. 2012. Modification of the biophysical water function to predict the change in soil mineral nitrogen concentration resulting from concurrent mineralization and denitrification. Can. J. Soil Sci. 92: 695-710. Uncertainty in soil N supply is an importa...

This study evaluated different strategies for use of a simple first-order kinetic model (N-min = N-0[1- e(-kt)] where N-0 is potentially mineralizable nitrogen and k is the mineralization rate constant) to predict growing season soil nitrogen supply (SNS) in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) fields under cool humid climatic conditions. All strategies c...

The ability of the soil to supply some of the crop nitrogen (N) requirements via the mineralization of organic matter is of economic and environmental importance to producers and society. Water, or its absence, controls microbial activity in soil and thus rates of net N mineralization. Development of a general relationship between soil water conten...

This study evaluated different strategies for use of a simple first-order kinetic model (N-min = N-0 [1-e(-kt)] where N-0 is potentially mineralizable N and k is the mineralization rate constant) to predict growing season soil N supply (SNS) in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) fields under cool humid climatic conditions. Direct application of the kine...

Accurate prediction of soil nitrogen (N) mineralization in agricultural soils is of major concern because uncertainty in making fertilizer N recommendations can lead to economic losses and environmental pollution. This study examined the suitability of three temperature functions (Q10, Arrhenius, Logistic) as predictors of the temperature dependenc...

Soil N mineralization is an important N contributor to crop uptake; however, the soil and climatic controls on soil mineralizable N are poorly understood. Soil samples from 56 sites across Canada were used to determine the potential to predict the size of mineralizable N pools through simple soil properties and through simple climatic indices and t...

By using a rhizobox micro-suction cup technique we studied in-situ mobilization and complexation of Zn and Cd in the rhizosphere of non-hyperaccumulating Thlaspi perfoliatum and two different Thlaspi caerulescens ecotypes, one of them hyperaccumulating Zn, the other Zn and Cd. The dynamic fraction (free metal ions and small labile complexes) of Zn...

ChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 200 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract of an article which was published elsewhere, please select a “Full Text” option. The original article is trackable via the “References” option.

The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of root exudation of organic acid anions on the speciation of major and trace metal cations in the rhizosphere of Lupinus albus cluster roots. Plants were grown in rhizoboxes containing repacked weakly acidic loam. Bulk soil solutions and, during the lifetime of cluster roots, rhizosphere...

This article gives a review of the analytical and environmental criteria which must be considered and the relevant specific developments needed for direct, reliable voltammetric measurements of trace metal speciation in environmental systems. In particular, this article will focus on the tools which enable remote, long-term in situ measurements. Th...

We investigated in situ the temporal patterns and spatial extent of organic acid anion exudation into the rhizosphere solution of Lupinus albus, and its relation with the nutrient anions phosphate, nitrate and sulfate by means of a rhizobox micro suction cup method under P sufficient conditions. We compared the soil solution in the rhizosphere of c...

Fifteen fields were selected on fifteen representative farms of western Switzerland field crops agriculture and observed over a 5-years period in order to better understand the in-situ N-dynamics. The farms characteristics, the weather conditions and all the relevant field operations on the selected fields were registered. Monthly N-min and yearly...

Root–soil interactions can strongly influence the soil solution chemistry in the rhizosphere. In the present study we propose a modification of the classical rhizobox/micro suction cup system to make it suitable for the collection and analysis of organic acids in the rhizosphere. In order to show the potential of the method, we tested the modified...

The goal of this study was to investigate the impact of hyperaccumulator plants on the concentration and speciation of heavy metals. Poster presentation SCS Fall Meeting 2006